MK25: Shoot…
Grady: He still kinda emotional about last chapter.
MK25: Dude, shut up.
Grady: Get over it.
MK25: (cheerily) Okay!
Grady: Jeez, not that quick!

Chapter 15: Homecoming

The team was standing on a clearing that was just above their target, a city. "Welcome," Cerberumon started. "To Steel City." The city from the height they where, definitely seemed urban. Nothing but gleaming metal all throughout the cluster of houses. 'Hey, I'm home.' Cerberumon thought.
"Well, what's keeping us?" Biyomon stated. "Let's go."
Everyone then proceeded to ran down the embankment towards the city, until Grady stopped them. "Wait, do you really think that a bunch of humans can just waltz into a city in another world? We don't know what's there. For all we know, there may be an ambush waiting. If we play it right, we could avoid some trouble."
"Again with the paranoia." Luci moaned.
"Hey, paranoia is not about being cautious and expecting the unexpected." Grady retaliated.
"And you-!" Will was cut off by Grady.
"We never speak of that incident again. Have I made myself clear?" Grady ordered in a demanding tone. Will nodded very quickly. "You know what, I'm not in the mood to argue. We all had a tough week, so, let's just go."
"I know a place where we can stay here." Cerberumon stated before they all headed out.

As they were heading for the spot Cerberumon talked about, it seemed that other digimon were taking glances at the team, and then returning to what they were doing once they passed. Then, near the city limits, they stopped at what appeared to be an apartment complex that looked kind of rundown and not taken care of for the last few years. "This is the place?" Luci asked.
"I know, it doesn't look very homely, but trust me."
"Guess I'll ring them up." Grady said as he rung the doorbell. After a few minutes, a human-like jackal with golden-white wings and sky-blue fur came to the door. As soon as the jackal saw Cerberumon, it gasped in awe, and bear-hugged him.
"You're home! You're finally home." Everyone else could not help but stare and gape. Obviously, it was female. She said to the others, "Oh, excuse me. Please, come in."
"A little crazy," Grady whispered to Gavin as they entered. "But she's pretty cool."
Everyone was seated at a large table. The Digimon was revealed to be Anubismon. When she came back, she came with freshly cooked food. The digidestined started to drool as more and more food pulled. Anubismon said to the team, "Oh, sorry. Go ahead and dig in. It's not every day I get this many visitors around here."
The team didn't wait for a second invitation. They stormed the table and grabbed everything they could. Anubismon chuckled at this site. "I should have made more food had I'd know you all would be this hungry."
Grady finished shoving down a turkey leg before saying, "Excuse me, Anubismon?" She turned to the boy. "I just need to know, how'd you know Cerberumon?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm his mother." She then looked affectionately at her son. "And he has grown so much since he left me seven years ago."
"Don't think much has changed since then." Cerberumon said.
"Oh, you may be grown up, but you're still the same young rookie you were when you left." She quickly changed the subject as she sat down as well. "So, how do all know my son?"
Luci explained, "Well, he's my partner, and they are digidestined as well as me."
"Wait, you said that you all are digidestined?"
"Yes…" Grady said, expecting the worst.
"Oh no, your with HIM, aren't you!"
"What!" Everyone asked in unison.
"I heard that the digidestined defected over to the digimon that's trying to retake the human world for digimon…"
"It's not true!" Biyomon shouted angrily at her. "They were brainwashed to become servants! How could you ever think that the saviors of our world would do such a thing willingly!" All the digidestined looked straight at Biyomon.
"Jeez!" Grady slapped his forehead. "This team's full of secrets."
"I was one of the digidestined's partners-."
"Sora, wasn't it. My father told me."
Everyone changed their attention to Luci. "Yeah, about that. You remember Gennai, right?" they all nodded. "He's my dad."
"All right, once we get some time to ourselves, we get all the secrets sorted out." Grady said straight up. "First Chris with his past, then Biyomon and her relation with the digidestined, and now Luci and Gennai!"
"Well, it seems like you'll have a few things to sort out later." Anubismon chuckled. "Well, I guess I can trust you all. Come, I have some rooms for you to share."
"My mom and I used to have a large family, so we have plenty of rooms. Of course, one by one, they left this home, and I was the last one." Cerberumon informed them.

"WHAT!" The room rumbled at his voice. "You couldn't take on one of those kids?"
"We apologize, master. But, he was too much for us."
Nightmaredramon sat at his chair. "I should have expected this to happen. Ukkonen and Fuoco, you may leave. Learn your abilities. When you have complete control of them, come back to see me. Make sure the other 5 follow you as well!"
They bowed as the left his presence. Nightmaredramon went back to plotting.

Grady awoke in another cold sweat, which woke up Elecmon in a fright as well. Every digidestined and their partner had a room to themselves.
"Jeez," Elecmon whispered as loud as he could. "You scared me."
"Sorry, little buddy. Just another nightmare."
"It's more than that." Elecmon said. "If it was an ordinary nightmare, you probably wouldn't wake up like this in the middle of the night. I've been around enough people to be able to read them to a certain degree."
"Too many secrets with this group." Grady replied. "Alright, I'll admit it. It's about that night back at the mansion."
"With Beastmon." Elecmon groaned. "What is it?"
"In order to tell you, I need to tell you another secret. When I 'found' my sword, I was put in a test against him. At the end of it, I asked him if he wished to help me or not. I still don't know if he truly had a change of heart, or he couldn't admit defeat and this was his way through me, but he was willing to join my fight. He's inside me, and I don't know if I should unlock the new power he relinquished to me. I'm afraid if I do, I might try to hurt you guys again. That's why I left in the first place."
"Well, at least I know now it wasn't us that made you leave. I guess all you can do is just unlock it when you need to. If we have to, I guess all we can do is fight you."
"And that's what I'm afraid of. If I fight you, I'd try to kill you. Remember the mansion. You guys were barely a match for me. If the same thing happens again, I might kill you guys, and then our world, maybe even worlds, would be screwed. That's what I'm afraid of."
"I'm sorry, then. All we can do is do what we have to, if we have to. You've become very strong mentally and emotionally in a short time. I'm sure you'll keep control." Elecmon yawned, and closed his eyes. Grady stifled a laugh.
"Go back to sleep, little buddy." Grady said.
"Stop calling me that." Elecmon muttered before falling back to sleep.

Grady smiled and got out the bed. He wanted to make a quick stop at the bathroom. But, while he was dousing his face with water, he heard the droning of a familiar voice. He shut off the water, and put his ear toward the wall with the door. He could hear Anubismon and someone else talking.
"I'm here looking for fugitives; 15 of them, to be exact." An unfamiliar voice said. "Reports say they where seen entering this building."
"Well, I assure you, Miss…" Anubismon's voice trailed off.
"Mizu." The other voice said.
"Miss Mizu, I assure you that no fugitives are here."
"Well, maybe, but maybe you've seen them." Grady heard the sound of rolling paper, and a gasp.
"Why would you be after my son?"
"So you have seen them." Mizu replied.
"I only recognize my son."
There was a pause before the voice known as Mizu replied, "Okay then, thank you for your time. If you see then, report them ASAP, okay?"
"I'd rather die than give my son to you."
"Well, well; feisty one ain'tcha. Well, I'll talk to my sender and see if we can spare your son."

Grady heard footsteps before a door closing. He counted to ten before opening the door, just to be sure. He exited the room and headed downstairs to Anubismon. She must have heard the footsteps, as she watched the stairs to see Grady appear. He stared into Anubismon's eyes and said, "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I didn't know." Anubismon told him.
Grady reached for his sword, but stopped short. She was telling the truth.
"Did they tell you why there where looking for us?"
"No, I'm afraid not. Please go back to sleep."
"If I do, I'll have another bad dream." Grady replied. "Actually, it'll be the same one. I'm probably gonna be up for a while. I'm used to it anyway." Grady proceeded to pull an apple out of his pocket and eat it. He kept a couple from the forest. "I'm heading back up, in case she decides to come back."
"Night." Anubismon said to him.

Chris hadn't gotten any sleep yet. He couldn't anyway. He was trying to deal with his past memories, trying to get rid of them. But, no matter how hard he tried when his closed his eyes, he always saw the same horrifying sight he saw just a few months before he came here. He always hated to think about his sister after that.
Yet, when he did, He felt soothed by her sight: Her soft, golden blond hair, her bright, vivid green eyes, her soft skin, and her happiness. She always had been an optimist. At times, He envied her because she could have a caring heart no matter what the situation. But, at night, while she would change in appearance, her personality was all the same.
Every time he saw her, she would always be humming or singing. She had a beautiful voice, one that could sooth even the mightiest of beasts. He loved to hear her sing.
"Why did they have to kill her? She wasn't a monster, they just didn't understand." He found himself sobbing. He tried to keep as quiet as possible; so to not wake up anyway else. "Then again, it's human nature. But, that's no reason to kill her in cold blood…" He then cried until he eventually fell asleep. "If only they knew her…"

Morning came, and everyone was downstairs. Grady was in front of the group to reveal something. "Guys, I got bad news. We're branded." Everyone was looking at him questioningly. Grady groaned and said, "We're wanted! Every one of us."
"Are you kidding me?" Luna asked. "Why would anyone want us?"
"No," Karina said to her. "We're wanted as criminals."
"Oh. But what did we do?" Grady proceeded to slap himself on the forehead.
"That rat-!" Luci stopped herself, because there were children.
"Listen, we have to stay out of the public eye as much as possible. Someone sent two cronies here last night. Anubismon almost lost it when she found out Cerberumon was wanted along with us. Plus, I'm betting they want us DOA, too."
"Now, that one I caught." Gavin proceeded. "But what makes you think he would want us dead or alive."
"Because if one of us dies, the world as we know it is done for." Grady replied. "Listen, walking out here is a death trap. We need to sneak out through alleys and such."
"Wait, I think I remember a way out through here." Anubismon said. "Come with me." All of them followed her into the kitchen. She then proceeded to open a trap door.
"Through here is a passageway to some ruins about a mile south of here. This was once used to sneak into them during war times. You can take this way and most likely not get caught. It's close to the surface, so you can't make too much noise."
"Thank you. Not only for this, but for letting us stay." Biyomon said. "C'mon everyone!"
They all proceed to head down the trap door. But, Cerberumon stopped in front of his mother. "Mom…"
"Shh!" she said. "Just come back when this is over."
"Yes, mother."
"Hurry."
He then proceeded to jump down the hole. 'Please be okay…' she thought as his son left one last time.

MK25: I can think of some dark stuff.
Grady: and weird, too.
MK25: Shut up, man.
Grady: Don't mess with me.
MK25: You a pansy threatening me with that sword.